You win some, you lose some. But those crowing over Sam Zell's mis-step in acquiring Tribune are stuck in an Esop fable. The real estate mogul, nicknamed "the gravedancer" for his ability to sniff out attractive but distressed assets, was unable to turn round the debt-laden media company the way he did so many times before with office buildings and shopping centres. It is Tribune's employees, though, who stand to lose a far more substantial slice of their wealth than Zell at the worst possible time through their now worthless employee stock ownership plan (Esop).

Mr Zell, who unloaded his office building empire at the height of the market to Blackstone Group for $36bn, had little to lose by committing just $315m in cash to Tribune's leveraged buy-out. As sale prices for assets such as the Chicago Cubs baseball team slipped, the company's core operations were unable to support its crushing debt load of nearly 10 times unlevered cash flow. Publishing revenue fell by 13 per cent last quarter, in line with the broader industry, while broadcasting and entertainment fell about half as much with little prospect for a turnround soon.